Only My Way
by CaitlinLovesYou
Summary: My version of the season one episode My Way. What was Keely thinking throughout the whole thing? Hints of Pheely included.
1. Star of the Future

**Hey people! This is just a small story based on the season 1 episode "My Way". I'm just adding Keely's thoughts and stuff. It's in Keely's POV throughout the whole thing. Remember to read my other story which I still will work on, even if I'm doing this one! It's called Rock a Bye Keely. :) Okay. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own "My Way" and I soooz don't own POTF either. **

* * *

I was walking to my next class with my friend Phil Diffy. I was a bit flustered and all, so basically I had to ask him where I was supposed to go next. I was stopped when I saw a bunch of people crowding around something on the bulletin. Usually, nobody paid attention to stupid, school bulletins, which then meant either Mr. Messerschmidt died somehow, or there was a special important notice that everybody was interested in.

"Huh. Looks like Mr. Hackett finally got some nibbles on his minivan," Phil, the adorably cute guy, otherwise known as "Keely's best friend/boyfriend." Well, you know…a boy…that's my friend. I squinted at the sheet of paper everybody was signing, and my heart leaped.

"No, they're signing up for the H.G. Wells _Star of the Future_ competition " I said sort of excitedly. Phil looked at me and I read the description aloud. "Become the prince or princess of Pickford pop." Hehe, that's a lot of P's.

"Hmm…I wonder what the prince of Pickford pop picks up in the way of perks." I smiled to myself for a second. I always liked when he did these small games with me. It made me feel…special. Loved. I put on a more serious face and replied to him.

"Plenty of parades, parties, and…a…" I strained my brain to think of another word that began with P. I couldn't think of any decent words, and I blurted out, "…porcupine." Phil stared at me weirdly, probably debating whether or not I was a freak. "No porcupine, I was just out of P's."

Thankfully, Pim came up to us from behind, and it took our minds off of my temporary stupidity.

"Here it is," she said, holding up a bag of all purpose flour. "Reason number 3,005 why I hate this stupid century and everyone in it." I looked down.

"You hate flour," Phil observed. "I can see not liking flour, but hating it…" Pim cut him off.

"It's not flour, it's my baby!'

We looked at each other, thinking that Pim must have gone mental or something.

"It's for my stupid Life Skills class," she explained. "Two people have to pretend this," she gestured to the flour, "is a baby and take care of it for a week." Oh. That explains it. "And you won't _believe _the dillweed I got for a partner."

"Ah...there's the little woman!" A voice called out.

"Little?" Pim asked. "I wouldn't be tossing around the L word if I were you, Thumbelina." I smiled. He _was _on the short side.

"I was thinking…let's name him Bradley Benjamin Farmer, Junior." Pim crossed her arms, obviously disgusted.

"Oh, great. Then his nickname will be "Doofus Finkelman Dork-face _Part Two_!" And with that, she threw up her hands in exasperation and stalked off.

Bradley Benjamin Farmer turned to us. "New mothers can be so temperamental." He left too. Just then, another voice came up to us. I wasn't really thrilled to hear THIS voice. I rolled my eyes.

"You gonna stand there all day, Teslow?" The voice could only belong to the one, the only, Tara Schrader. I frowned.

"If I feel like it, Schrader." She rolled her eyes and stepped forward to the sign up sheet, pushing us out of the way a bit harshly, as if she was the greatest thing in the world.

Phil finally decided to say something. "Competing in the _Star of the Future _thing, Tara?" She finished signing her name and turned back to us.

"Excuse me? It's _Tara_." She added emphasis on her name so it sounded like "_Tuh-Rah_". "And I'm not _competing_," She gave us a snobby smile. "I'm _winning_." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "I can't help it, though. I come from a showbiz family."

"Showbiz. Your father is the _weatherman _on channel 36." He pointed out. She nodded.

"Yeah, just because you know when it's gonna be windy before everyone else don't make you the _bizom_," I said.

"Keely, I noticed YOUR name wasn't on the sign up sheet." I looked at her pointedly. "Good thing, though, 'cause if it were, the forecast would call for 100 percent chance of choking. Bleah!" I looked down again. _That hurt… _She walked away, satisfied.

"Huh. I always thought her name was Tara," Phil said.

I glared at her retreating figure. "I. Can't. Stand. Her." I spoke through gritted teeth. _Oh god…Keely. You're approaching another one of your famous ramblings…STOP! _But I didn't, even if I knew once I started rambling, I couldn't stop. "I wish a building wound fall on her!" Another idea popped into my head. "I wish she'd get stung by a 50-pound bee!" I talked and talked, not showing signs of stopping anytime in the near future. I was still talking after school at Phil's house.

"…I wish a dog would mistake her as a fire hydrant. I wish the U.S. women's soccer team would use her as a ball—"

"Hey, what about running her over with a steamroller, huh?" Phil said. He played those three notes that would usually sound after a comedian said a funny line on his drums.

"Phil, grow up!"

"I'm sorry. Just trying to help. What is it with you two anyway?"

I rolled my eyes once again. "I don't want to talk about it." I folded my arms and turned away from him.

"Okay," Phil said. I realized that I _did_ want to talk about it. After all, I told Phil everything. I sighed.

"It was in third grade," I recalled. Phil listened intently. "I had a bad experience in our Thanksgiving pageant."

"What happened?"

"I was playing a pumpkin. So, I had to sing a pumpkin song."

"How, exactly, does a pumpkin song go?" _Man, I have to sing that song for him, don't I? _I cleared my throat.

_"We live in New England and winters are cold,_

_And conditions are quite hard for living._" I glanced at Phil.

He smiled. "Great voice--" But I wasn't done with the song yet.

_"So you'll bring the gravy, and I'll bring the turkey_

_And we'll have a Happy Thanksgiving!" _

"Awesome! So, how'd it go over at the pageant?"

"Eh…" I hated that experience. The pictures formed back into my memory slowly, and I explained what I remembered what happened to Phil. "Tara was Thanksgiving Queen, so I had to kneel at her feet and do my song. But I looked out, saw all those people in the audience…opened my mouth to sing…" I paused. "Then I threw up on Tara's slippers." I said that last part faster than I did the others.

Phil laughed slightly. "Whoops."

"Actually, it's more like…" I imitated a retching noise. "Instead of _hearing_ about turkey and gravy, the audience got to see it."

"And that was the last time?"

"No…I threw up last summer at Yodel's Ice Cream Parlor."

"I meant, that was the last time you performed?" He said. "That's what Tara meant by choking?"

I nodded. "Stage fright. Which completely stinks, because," _Maybe I shouldn't tell him about what I _really_ dream of doing. Oh well. Here goes nothing… _"there goes my dream." My voice quieted.

"Dream?"

"I never told you this, but I've always dreamed of someday becoming a singer."

Phil blinked. "I thought you wanted to become a cat psychologist."

"That's my cover."

"Keel, if your dream is to become a singer, then you should sign up for the _Star of the Future _tryouts." I knew I really wanted to, but I admit, I guess I was still scared… What if I made a complete fool of myself again?

"Phil! Do you not get the point of the whole puking story?"

He stayed calm, even If my voice was getting louder and higher. "Yeah, you gotta conquer your fears."

I stood up abruptly. "I'm afraid of my fears!" I whined. I swallowed, trying not to make a bigger scene than what I was already doing. "That's why they're called "fears"."

"Well, that was a long time ago. You're older now, I think you can do this." He had stood up in front of me.

"Really?" I asked timidly.

"I promise." I smiled back at him. "Uh…just to be on the safe side, before tryouts, eat a light breakfast."


	2. Auditions

**Still don't own it.**

* * *

Mentally, I was currently kicking myself because after all, I was standing here, moments away from tryouts, in front of real, live, people! I must really have been losing it.

Tara was busy holding out the last note of her song, a lot longer than what it was supposed to be. It sounded horrible, by the way, but I think Tara thought it sounded good. The audience clapped as soon as she finished, and apparently, they thought it was good too.

"Uh, this may be a while. You wanna grab a bite to eat?" Phil asked me. I didn't answer. I was frozen with fear.

Tara finally finished that long note. "Thank you so much," she said. She looked at me, rolled her eyes, and waved at the audience. My stomach churned and my heart was beating abnormally fast.

Tara was now approaching Phil and me. "Oh, Keely, what are you doing here?" I looked down at my shoes. They were the converses that my aunt had gotten me last.

Phil came to my rescue and said, "What do you think she's doing? She's here to sing and sing great. Nothing's coming out of her mouth but sweet music." Tara glared at him.

"Yeah! What he said…" I added.

"Okay, but just to be safe, I'll put on my galoshes." She imitated the gagging sound and laughed at her own joke. "_Please_." She pushed us out of her way once again. I felt tears sting my eyes, but I quickly blinked them away.

Absentmindedly, I jumped in front of Phil. "Haha! Look at me, I'm Tara! I'm HILARIOUS!" What was I doing? "My dad has a fake tan!" I mocked. I felt a tad bit better after that, but the cold feeling of dread came back when…

"Next up for tryouts, Keely Teslow!" I spun around.

"All right. Deep breaths. Come on, you can do this." Phil told me. I turned to face him again and I tried to take deep breaths. He coached me to do so. I closed my eyes. "Now go get 'em."

"Okay." I opened my eyes. I paused before I went on stage. I decided that I couldn't chicken out now.

I slowly made my way towards the microphone. Totally screwing up again, my shoes got tangled in the wire. I untangled myself, cheeks burning. The audience was giggling. "Scraps…" I muttered under my breath. I grabbed the microphone stand and looked out, seeing all of those people. I seemed to freeze again…

My breathing pattern was getting shaky and I was almost hyperventilating. The first few beats to the song I was supposed to do started playing, yet, I didn't start. God, I felt sick again. I kept on swallowing and glancing at everybody now and then. My eyes were glistening with unshed tears of nervousness.

"Keely, come on, sing!" Phil whispered. I tried to, but failed at my first attempt. "And a one, a two, a one, two, three, go!" Phil waved his arms to signal for me to go. I still didn't. I felt like running home, crawling under my blankets and blocking out the world.

_"Y-you're…always there for me…"_ I sounded horrible. My voice was barely above a whisper and it had to enthusiasm in it_. "When I need you most…day and night, by my side…protecting me._" I was shaking. A few people were…laughing. At me. A lump rose in my throat…

Meanwhile, Phil pulled out his wizard. "Come on, Keely. Let's pump up the volume." He pressed a few buttons. Soon, a wave of confidence hit me and I started singing like I would never sing again.

_"When I feel like crashing down, _

_You seem to be around_

_There you are, you're not that far_

_'Cause whenever, wherever, baby_

_You'll protect me, no matter what…" _I finished the song perfectly.


	3. StageFright and Bullies and Phil, Tadow!

**Own nothing.**

* * *

The next day, I stood in front of the bulletin board again, nervously waiting for the teacher to post up who was going to the finals. Soon enough, she came out and posted the paper. I glanced at it.

_Wait a minute…that's MY name, isn't it? No, that can't be… _I blinked and looked again. My name was still there. Only one thought raced through my mind. "I have to go tell Phil!"

I raced down the hallways and finally down the stairs, almost tripping once. There he was.

"Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil!" I screamed, out of breath. "I made the finals!"

"Hey, hey, congrats!" We bumped elbows.

I squealed. "And I never could have done it without you."

He paused. "About that, um, see, I gotta talk to you--"

"Yo, Schrader! You hear? I made the finals!" I happened to see Tara chatting with her friends and I decided to show her that I wasn't the piece of scum that she thought I was. They chucked. "That's tight, I'm talking to you. I'm taking you DOWN!"

"Keely, uh…" He motioned for me to be quiet.

"Phil, please. I'm taunting," I turned to the rest of the school. "Everybody got that? Keely Teslow is taking Tara Schrader to the woodshed!" She just shook her head. "TADOW!"

Tara and her cronies than walked over. "No worries, Teslow, You'll choke in the finals." She laughed. I was put down a bit, but I was overpowered with this odd sensation of fearlessness. They started to walk away. "Old news!" I yelled after them. "This girl don't choke! She--" I suddenly started choking and coughing. So much for that statement.

"Keely, you okay?"

"Are you kidding?" I cleared my throat. "Never been better. Finally over my stage fright."

"Yeah, about that…" I wondered what he was talking about. "Uh, remember at the tryouts how you sort of had a hard time getting started?"

"Yeah, but then I really came on strong! Tadow!"

"Yeah, see, it's sort of complicated. Uh…I used the voice modulator on the wizard to kind of "tadow" your voice," he said sheepishly. I finally started to get what he was saying. My eyes widened.

"S-so, it wasn't really me singing?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"Not technically."

"B-but it WAS just me who guaranteed I'd beat Tara right out in front of the whole school!"

"Yeah, that was you. There's no getting around that."

"Great. I'm toast." I sighed as thoughts overwhelmed me.

Phil and I were sitting on the stairs of the school, discussing my options of what I should do.

"The finals are on Friday, so we're looking at a few different options here," Phil said. "Option one, we can use the wizard again."

I really wanted to… "But that would be cheating."

"Option two, you can just now show up."

I pouted. "But that means that Tara would win and tease me for the rest of my life," I couldn't bear that. Even though I seem tougher on the outside when she does things like that, it really kills me inside.

"Option three, you can find a new best friend with more options."

I frowned because I didn't want _that_ to happen. "Phil, you give me another option right now!"

He smirked a bit. "Okay, well, there is the obvious one."

My face lit up and I got excited. Anything would work, as long as it would help me get over that horrible stage fright of mine. "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"You and I work together to get over your stage fright." I bit the inside of my lip and my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. This would be harder than I thought.


	4. Practice, Practice, Practice

**Disclaimer: If I keep saying I don't own it, I'll get severe depression.**

* * *

Phil had decided that it was good practice for me if I try singing in front of our neighbors. I agreed, reluctantly. II just DIDN'T like singing in front of people, period. Here I was, shivering in the bathroom, getting "ready". _What if I mess up again? Then everybody in the neighborhood will…laugh. They won't think of me the same way again._

I rubbed my eyes to get rid of any tears that were evidence that I was a nervous wreck, but being careful not to smear mascara everywhere. "Okay, Keel. Breathe…you'll do fine." _No you won't. _That voice inside my head was taunting me. I bit my lip. "Come on, Keely. Get a grip. Don't cry…don't be a baby." I sniffled and attempted to get a hold of myself. Soon, I figured I was ready and I came out. I peeked out of the "Club Diffy" curtains and looked at the people. Were there more people that I remembered? It sure seemed like it.

I closed them back and felt a foot tall again. Phil came up to me, looking as handsome as ever clad in that black jacket I loved.

"Too many people…" I mumbled.

Phil tried to comfort me. "Come on, they're all your friends, your neighbors. They want you to succeed." I felt a bit better. Pim's irritated voice rang through the room a second later.

"Could we PLEASE get this over with?" The fear returned.

He smiled at me nervously. "Well, most of them do. Look, all you need is a little confidence. One good performance, and you're off to the races!" He grabbed my hands and I felt lightheaded at his touch. **(AN: Well, at least I think that's what they did! LOL! Let's not ruin the perfect Pheely moment!) **"Ready?"

I grinned. "Ready." Phil left to introduce me and I tried to shake my worries away. Phil believed in me, and I felt that was all that mattered.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Club Diffy is pleased to present, the pride of Pickford, Miss Keely Teslow!" He ran off to the side where he waved a flashlight in my direction as if it were a spotlight. People were clapping. At least that was a positive thing.

I stepped out cautiously, and soon felt the audience's eyes bore into me. I couldn't do it.

"T-too many people." I said dumbly. I looked over to Phil, who put down the flashlight and ran to my side.

"Um, ladies and gentlemen, I just remembered that the fire marshal said we were a little overcrowded tonight. If we could have some volunteers too…"

"I'm outskys." That was Pim, of course. She got up and left immediately. Most of the people got up and left too. A small part of me was relieved. I stepped back up to the microphone, seeing if I could sing this time.

Seeing Mrs. Diffy's expectant facial expression, I felt pressured. The only thing I could say was, "Too many people." Once again, I stepped back from the microphone and let Phil take over. Well, that was embarrassing. I felt like crying.

"Uh, mom? Dad?" Mrs. Diffy seemed to understand.

"But it's my house!" Mr. Diffy complained.

"Come on, sweetheart. This is for Keely." She took his hand and dragged him out.

"Good night." Phil stepped back. In a few moments, everybody except Phil was gone. The weight was immediately lifted off my shoulders. I sang, feeling the passion within the song.

"Oh my gosh! That felt awesome!" I exclaimed as soon as I finished. "And I owe it all to you, Phil."

"Keely, I'm the only one here. I don't know if you've gotten over your stage fright."

"I just realized something amazing! I'm totally comfortable singing to you." _Wait, did I just say that out loud?_

"Yeah, but the problem is at the finals, it's not gonna be only me." True.

"But as long as I just focus on you, I'll be able to bring home the trophy!" I screeched. This would work, right?


End file.
